(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a thermal printer, and more particularly to a thermal printer changeable over between a thermal transfer printing mode in which printing is effected by transferring ink of an ink ribbon onto a plain paper and a thermosensible printing mode in which printing is effected on a thermosensible paper without using the ink ribbon.
(2) Description of the Related Art
In general, with a thermal printer which effects printing by heat-fusing ink of an ink ribbon by a thermal head and transferring the heat-fused ink onto a plain paper, an expensive ink ribbon is consumed each time the printing is effected. This results in an extremely high running cost. Therefore, there has been a desire to effect a test printing using a thermosensible paper, which is low in cost, before the printing operation using the ink ribbon.
A conventional thermal printer, however, effects the thermosensible printing in the same condition as the thermal transfer printing (for example, voltage applied to the thermal head is not controlled). Therefore, energy is consumed wastely and the printing operation takes a long time.